Planoobaph co



E. K. DORER.

GAME.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 19. Hill. RENEWED IUNE 16 I919.

Patented Aug. 26, 1919.

A AI

gwue'nfo'n .Fm ma/ [Zorar EMMA K. DORER, OF NEW YORK, N, Y.

GAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented A11". 26, 1919.

Application filed March 19, 1917, Serial No. 155,880. Renewed June 16, 1919. Serial No. 304,724.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMMA K. Donna, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Games, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to games and to appliances for playing the same.

My object is to provide a game which will be suited to the capacity of mature persons, and those who are intellectually alert, but which may also, with slight modification, be adapted to the capacities of young people and children as wellc0nsequently, a game having a wide range of adaptability as to the capacity of the players, and therefore one suited to be thoroughly interesting and entertaining to all the members of a family or any ordinary group of persons who may chance to be thrown together.

A leading feature of the invention consists in a central checkered field so arranged as to constitute a field of danger and difficulty across which the players have to move their respective game-pieces in opposite directions; and additional fields (which may be characterized as fields of safety) at opposite sides of said central field, into which fields the players must ultimately move their game-pieces in order to successfully finish the game; the rules governing the movements and treatment of game-pieces in the field of danger and the fields of safety being different.

The invention consists in certain novel features which will be hereinafter described andelaimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings which illustrate one form of my board as employed in playing the game together with a number of its modifications. I

Playing the game on the board here illustrated is well adapted to familiarize children with the ten digits or signficant figures commonly used at thepresent time in Writing numbers, and known as the Arabic method of notation; while at the same time also teaching them the numbers from one to ten according to the Roman method of notation.

At the present day the Arabic method of notation is in such universal use that the utmost familiarity with the ten figures used in this system is absolutely necessary; but the Roman method is also sufficiently used to make it very important that children as well as older people should have a working knowledge of this method of writing numbcrs also.

My game board is so made that a knowledge of how to read numbers, up to ten, by both methods, is necessary in order to play the game. The Roman munbcrs appear on the board in regular consecutive order beginning with one and ending with ten, so that a child not familiar with them, as

many children are not, can soon learn them and become familiar with them from the order which they occupy on the board; but the Arabic characters which must be known with the utmost familiarity, are all mixed up and confused on the board in utter disregard of orderly arrangement, so that an instantaneous knowledge of these numbers at sight, regardless of order, becomes an absolute necessity in playing the game.

The drawing represents my improved game-board with a game in process of being played thereon.

The board is preferably rectangular in shape, and is divided into two equal parts by a central line a parallel to two opposite sides of the board, which sides are hereinafter designated as the ends of the board. The two parts of the board on opposite sides of this line are similar to each other in every respect; and it is at these two sides that the opposing players or groups of players stand or sit while playing the game.

The lines I) and c extend transversely across theboard at one side of the central line a, and the lines (Z and e extend across it at the other side of said central line, all these lines being parallel and spaced an equal distance from each other. Extending at right angles to these lines are the lines f, g, h, 1', j, is, Z, m, a, 0, and 71, all spaced from each other the same distance as are the first named lines a, b, 0, (l, and c, spaced from each other.

For convenience of reference, the lines (I, Z), c, (I, and a will be referred to as horizontal lines, and the lines f, g, 72 i, j, k, Z, or, n, o, and 7), as vertical lines.

The two sets of lines just referred to form the central part of the board into four transverse rows of squares having ten squares in each row, or, ten vertical rows of squares with four squares in each row.

F or further convenience of reference, and to prevent multiplicity and confusion of reference characters, the horizontal and vertical rows of squares formed by the above lines will be indicated by the lines which bound the respective rows: that is :the

horizontal row of ten squares lying betweenthe lines a and b, will simply be designated as row of squares ab, and the vertical row of four squares lying, let us say, be tween the vertical lines Z and 971., will be designated as row of squares Zm, etc. In like manner, individual squares will be indicated by the four lines which bound the respective squares, according to the method commonly employed in geometry to indicate geometrical figures.

In the two horizontal rows of squares ab and ad on opposite sides of the central line a, three squares in each row are marked Skid, and to make these squares more con- .spicuous, the word is surrounded by a circle 9 in each instance. It will be noticed that these skid-squares are arranged in pairs diagonally opposite each other on opposite sides of the central line a.

Each of the vertical rows of squares is provided at one end with an acute angle 1,

and at the other end with a similar angle 6, and the ten angles thus formed at each end of the board are numbered consecu tively, beginning with one andending with tenwhen read from left to right, the Roman method of notation which represents numbers by certainletters of the alphabet being employed. And to make the letters representing the numbers of these angles more conspicuous they are surrounded by circles indicated by t at one end of the board, and by u at the other end: and adjacent these Roman circles t and u, and inclosed in the angle therewith are the smaller, blank, auxiliary circles t" and 10 respectively.

At the apex of each of the similar angles 9" and s at the two ends of the board respectively, a number is written in figures according to the common or Arabic method of notation. These numbers begin with one and increase consecutively to ten, but are arranged without reference to any regular order when read from left to right, except that the order of arrangement at each end of the board is the same, when read in each instance from the opposite end of the board.

These Arabic numbers opposite the points of the-angles r and s at the two ends of the board, are also surrounded by circles o and 10 respectively.

The board is also provided with ten gamepieces :0 forone side of the board and ten similar game-pieces 3 for the other side.

The game pieces at one side of the board may be made different in shape or color or marking from those used at the other side, so that the two sets can be easily distinguished from each other.

The ten game-pieces for each end of the board are numbered from one to ten consecutively, the numbers being preferably indicated by figures, according to the Arabic method of notation.

I will now describe one 01" the Ways in which a full game may be played on this board by two persons, one of them being seated at the end A of the board, and the other at the opposite end B thereof.

One set/of the disks or game-pieces (let us say the set it) is placed inside the circles t at the end A of the board, at the beginning of the game, and the other set 0 is placed inside the circles u at the other end B of the board. These game-pieces are so arranged on their respective circles that their numbers will correspond'to-the Roman numbers on said circles: as, for instance, a player in arranging his disks to start with would always place his disks 5 on his V-circle, his disk 10 on his X-circle, etci, in the positions still occupied by some of the disks on the drawings, which show the disks in theposition they might occupy while a game is in process of being played.

The Roman circles at each end oi the board are the starting points for the player at that end; and one of the primary objects of each player is to get all his game-pieces into their respective Arabic circles at the other end (his opponents end) oi the board. lVhen he has done this, he has won the game; though that is not the only way that a game may be won: for if one player corners his opponents men so that his opponent cannot make another move, he has also won the game.

A disk must first be moved from its Roman circle down into one of the squares; it can then at the players next move, be moved forward, or to the right, or to the left, in an effort to get it toward home in its proper Arabic circle at the other end of the board, but it must not be moved backward; neither must a disk, under any circumstances, be moved diagonally from one square to another. A player may when he has the opportunity jump over his opponents disk, and thus make two steps toward home at a single move, but he cannot remove his .opponents disk whenhe jumps it.

A; very interesting and original feature of the game is in the skid-squares whichv will now be explained.

The word Skid has been coined, or at least adopted into the game with a new signification, to meet the requirements of the game, which signification will appear from what follows. i

Let us suppose that the game-pieces are in the positions indicated in the drawings. Now, one of the rules of the game is that jumping is optional, except in cases where a jump would land the jumper on a skidsquare, and then the jump must be taken, and the disk which was jumped onto the IOU skid must be put back on its proper Roman circle whereit. started from at the beginning of the game; and hence each player is always glad to skid= (send back) one of. his opponents disks to its starting point; and that is the distinctive meaning which the word skid has in this game.

Now let us suppose that Mr. A is at the end A of the board playing with the disks m which have a broad shaded margin, and that Mr. B is at the end B of the board playing with the lighter colored disks y, which have only a, single marginal line. Now let us suppose. that As disk 700 was in the square arlfg, in the position indicated in dotted lines, and that Bs disk 2y was in the square (leg h, as also indicated in dotted lines, and that it was Bs move, and that he moved his disk 2; into the square adgh where it now appears, which move forced A to jump his disk 7w onto the skidsquare adhz', which sent As disk back to its starting point in the Roman circle 25 #VII at his end of the board where it now appears.

As these skid squares are midway between the two ends of the board, they obstruct the moves of each player and compel him to go around them in order to reach his home destination, thus making the game much more diflicult to play; but that is not all the difficulty which they occasion, for it will be noticed that in each horizontal row of squares at opposite s des of the central line. a, there are always two open squares between each skid-square and the next skid-square; and that brings about a condition which requires double alertness upon the part of both players since it sometimes happens that itis only a. matter of which one has the next move as: to which one gets caught and skidded back to the starting point. Suppose, for. instance, that A has his disk 89: on the square ebb i, and

i that Bhas his disk 102 on the square abiy',

both as shown in the drawing; then the player who chances to have the next move, whichever one of the players it may be, will have to jump onto a skid, which sends the disk thus skiddedback to its starting point again. Hence, in passing these skidsquares, a player in considering what will be a safe position, can only decide that question properly in the light of who has the" next move. However when a game-piece is out of reach of these skid-squares, the player often has .to consider nothing but absolute position in deciding what move he should make; this latter is specially true when he is attempting to corner one or more of his opponents disks. But the-very fact that he plays part of the time with the simple idea of absolute position principally in mind, throws him to some extent off his guard when it comes to moving other disks that are still in the danger zones around the skid squares. If he had to play with special reference to the skid-squares all the time, the law of the force of habit would soon operate to keep him constantly on his guard as to who had the next move, but such is not the case, since part of each full game is played with more particular reference to the absolute position of the gamepieces, as just pointed out; and hence the law of the force of habit is .to a considerable extent divided and hence confused in its operation, so that even the most experienced player of this game is constantly thrown back upon the exercise of his faculty of alertness, otherwise he will frequently get his disks caught and skidded back to their starting point.

To illustrate the use of the auxiliary circles t and u, let us suppose that Bs gamepiece ly (y #1) has reached the Roman circle VI 7; (t #6) on its way home to the Arabic circle 11) 0 #1) at the point of the angle which it has entered; then let us suppose that As disk (3w (:2 #6) is placed on the auxiliary circle t of the Roman circle (it (If #6). Hence it will appear that when a disk is skidded back to a Roman circle that is occupied by one of the disks of the opposing player, the skidded disk is placed on the auxiliary circle by the side of the occupied circle. In a case of this kind the two disks in question are played just the same as if the other one were not there.

In playing the game, a player is not limited to a single ump if the position of his opponents disks permits more than one ump.

Players cannot jump out of the Roman circles nor into them, but can jump across them onto the Arabic circles when opportunity offers.

If a player could not jump across a Roman circle on his way home to the Arabic circle, his opponent would often block him indefinitely, even when he had no hope of ultimately winning the game, by simply leaving SOHIOIllSkS on the Roman circles from the beginning of the game; but as it is, it behooves each player to get all his men out into the squares with reasonable promptness and on toward the Arabic circles at the other end of the board, for since a player cannot ump out of a Roman circle, (but must move out into the square fronting the circle) his opponent will try to get across the board to him and get into the square in front of him before he has left the circle, and thus block him in.

Then three persons wish to play the game, the two who are considered the poorest players ean take one end of the board and one set of the disks, and play against the other party who will be at the other end of the board and have the other set of disks. This will give the players a chance to prove whether two heads are better than one.

A four-handed game-maybe played by two parties playing as partners at each end of the board.

When the game board is viewed from either end, half the numbers on the board are upside down. This is necessarily the case since there is a player at each end of the board but the numbers both Roman and Arabic, are all so arranged that those with which each player has particularly to do, are right side up to him. i

The figure 6 on both sets of the gamepieces, has a bar or dash under it, to prevent it when seen upside down fro-1n being mistaken for the figure 9.

Since the circles at the bases of the angles 15 and s are the starting points of the disks, and the circles at their apexes are the stopping points, employing the Roman method of notation in numbering the circles t and u, at the bases of thetriangles, and the Arabic method in niunbering the home circles 12 and to at their apexes, serves a most useful purpose in preventing the players from making the natural 'mistake of attempting to duplicate, with the numbers on their disks, the numbers at the bases of the respective circles instead of the numbers at their apeXes.

While the game is one of absorbing interest to older people, it is also most interesting and animating to children and young people. The feature of the game which at once attracts children most is the skid feature, and they presently become very wary of the skid-squares; so much so that frequently in dodging one they get caught by another. Cornering ones opponents is not so interesting to children as skidding them back to the starting point, and hence the cornering feature of the game can be ignored when first teaching it to children.

'Children like to play in groups, and their confiding natures make them enjoy a game in which they can play as partners; and the present game affords a good opportunity for that kind of playing. A ,Q'I'OUJP of children can form at each end of theboard, and those at one end can play'as partners against those at the other end; and every time one gets skidded back to the starting point they will all have a laugh.

Again, the game will be interesting to children if each one takes a disk of a given number and attempts to work it across the board past the skid-squares to its home circle at the other end of the board. In-cases where children of widely different ages are playing, the younger ones may take one disk each, and the older ones can take two disks each, and whoever gets his disk or disks home first, has come out first best in partners; but when they are playing each fellow for himself, each player can jump any game piecehis own or anybody elses that gets into his Way. And even when playing partners, they can agree to jump partners if they so desire- When played in the ways just indicated, the game becomes sufiiciently easy to become thoroughly interesting to children of differentages; and when children begin to play I the game in its simplest forms, it will only be a little while till they will be able to play and enjoy some of the more complicated games which have already been described.

There are few things perhaps that afford a young child greater pleasure than playing a game with older children whom he nearly always looks upon as heroeshe at once feels bigger himself, and there is nothing he more desires than to be bigger, and this game is adapted to yield little fellows that kind of pleasure. I

The benefit which the game confers upon children by teaching them a ready knowl edge of the Roman and Arabic methods of notation, has been already referred to.

From the foregoing, it becomes apparent that I have produced a game appliance that has an unusually wide range of adaptability to persons of different ages and difi'erent degrees of intelligence. i In manufacturing the board, it is for convenience, made in two parts hinged together along the central line a, for which reasonthat line is shown heavier in the drawings than the other horizontal lines.

The different parts of the board may be provided at will with any suitable or preferred combination of colors. I have found by practice that a very simple and effective method of coloring is to make the fields "inclosed by the Arabic circles and the skid circles and the triangles, red; and to make the rest of the board green; but to prevent obscuring the reference letters onthe drawings, noneof these colors are there indicated, especially since it is optional as to whether the board shall be colored or plain.

It is apparent that certain changes could,

be made'in the board without departing in the least from the spirit of the invention; as, for instance, the ninnbers on the Arabic circles might be arranged in regular 'nugg v merical order, and the numbers on the R- man circles might be in a different order, etc. But the arrangement shown is thought to be one of the best, since the mixing up and confusion of the numbers on the A 'abic circles relatively to one another and also to the Roman numbers, makes the game much more difficult to play.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. In a device of the character described, a board having a central checkered field; fields formed of angles erected on the squares at the opposite sides of said checkered field with the apexes of the angles fronting outwardly; and identifying characters in said angles.

2. In a device of the character described,

a board having a central checkered field; fields formed of angles erected on the squares of said checkered field at opposite sides thereof; identifying numbers at the bases of said angles, said numbers being arranged in consecutive numerical order; and other identifying numbers arranged in irregular numerical order at the apexes of said angles.

3. In a device of the character described, a board having a central checkered field;

fields formed of angles erected on the squares at the opposite sides of said checkered field: identifying numbers at the bases of said angles for indicating the starting points for the several game pieces; and identifying numbers at the apexes of said angles for identifying the stopping points for the game pieces; said numbers at the bases of the angles and those at the apexes of the angles being indicated by different methods of no tation.

4. A game appliance comprising a board .having a central checkered field; fields formed of angles erected on the squares of said checkered field at opposite sides thereof; circles at the bases of said angles in closing identifying numbers; blank auxiliary, circles adjacent said numbered circles; and other identifying numbers at the apexes of said angles.

5. A game appliance comprising a board and game-pieces for playing thereon, said board having a checkered fie d across which the game-pieces. of opposing players are moved; certain of the squares of said field having the Word Skid thereupon, to signify the return to its starting point of any game-piece moved upon any of said desig nated squares.

6. In a device of the character described, a

board having a central checkered field; fields formed of angles at opposite sides of said checkered field; and identifying characters at the bases of said angles and also at the apexes thereof.

7. In a device of the character described, a board having a cent :11 checkered field; fields formed of angles at opposite sides of said checkered field; and identifying numbers in Roman notation at the bases of said angles and numbers in Arabic notation at their apcxes.

8. A game appliance comprising a board and game-pieces for playing thereon, said board having a central checkered field across which the game-pieces of opposing players are moved; and fields adjoining said central field at opposite sides thereof and embracing the ultimate points sought by the players, said adjoining fields being each formed of individual units connected with the central field but disconnected from each other to prevent the movement of game-pieces from one of said units to another.

9. A game appliance comprising a board and game-pieces for playing thereon, said board having a central checkered field with certain of its squares provided with designations indicating the subsequent move to be made by any game-piece moved upon one of said designated squares; fields fm'med of angles erected on the squares of said checkered field at opposite sides thereof; circles at the bases of said angles, said circles having identifying numbers arranged in consecutive numerical order; auxiliary circles located in said angles adjacent said nun bored circles; and circles at the apexes of said angles inclosing identifying numbers arranged in irregular numerical order, different methods of notation being employed in writing the identifying numbers at the apexes of the angles and those at their bases; the game-pieces of the board having numbers corresponding to the numbers in the circles at the bases and apeXes of the angles and employing the method of notation used in the circles at the apexes.

10. A game appliance comprising a board and game-pieces for playing thereon, said board having a subdivided field across which the game-pieces of opposing players are moved, and having a designated portion for the game pieces to start from in playing the game; said field having certain of its subdivisions designated by the word Skid with the signification of return, and a circle inclosing said word.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

EMMA K. DORER.

Witnesses:

R. J. REDICK, TERESA A. Roerms'ma.

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